The Boy Next Door

Mistakes

"They left us" Jaebum baulks, putting his hands on his hips as he stares out at the near empty parking lot. "And Jinyoung took my car!"

"Lucky for us, I have a car" Jackson laughs, he never mentioned that the team left and hes glad he didn't. Jaebum can be so adorably dramatic sometimes. Not that he thinks hes adorable...

"I never should have given him a key"

"It is your car then? I thought you guys shared"

"We do, but I could've kept the other key"

Jackson busts up laughing. Its easy to think Jaebum is funny now that everything he does doesn't immediately equal asshole. He stops laughing too suddenly when Jaebum reaches across the center console to put his hand on his thigh.

"Too much?" Jaebum takes his hand back quickly.

"Um...maybe..." Jackson turns on music to replace the silence, because for once, he can't think of a single dumb story to tell to fill it. They pull out of the parking lot and head towards the buffet Junhoe mentioned.

The ride is extremely awkward. With Jackson doing everything possible to not think about the warm tingle in his thigh where Jaebum had touched, and Jaebum cursing himself for ruining the mood.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable" Jaebum apologizes as they pull into the parking lot of the restaurant. "I just—I like you...and I want you to like me too"

"You're joking, right?"

"Why would I joke about this?"

"I mean, it's just— seriously?" Jackson gestures between them. "Its a joke, right?"

One look at Jaebum's face and Jackson knows that Jaebum is not joking and he just did the absolute worse thing he could have.

"Yeah, my bad, a stupid joke" Jaebum gets out of the car and slams the door shut, feeling like an idiot. Why would Jackson like him? Seriously? He's just like everyone else.

"Jaebum wait! I didn't mean it like that!" Jackson stumbles after him trying to catch him before he walks into the restaurant. He barely manages to grab Jaebum's shirt before he opens the door. "Wait!"

"Let go of me!" Jaebum smacks his hand away, turning on him.

"What is going on out there?" Sehun stands up to look over Jinyoung's head at the scene unfolding out front.

"A fight?"

"It just looks like yelling, I wonder what happened..." Sehun trails off. Now they're all watching as Jackson and Jaebum continue their screaming match. They can't hear anything though because of how noisy the restaurant is.

And then some guy in a baseball hat shoves Jackson, knocking him over and Jinyoung freaks out, kicking his chair over as he scrambles to get outside before Jaebum kills the guy. The whole team sprints outside just as Jinyoung is getting in between Jaebum and... Hanbin, of course.

Mark hurries over to check on Jackson, who is still sitting, looking down at his bleeding palms. They got cut up when he tripped over the wheel stop.

Jaebum lands one good punch before Jinyoung and Yugyeom are pulling him back shouting at him and at Hanbin and at the other teammates to leave. If they get caught fighting they'll get benched for the rest of the season, or worse, kicked off the team completely.

"Mark, can you drive?" Jinyoung asks as he shoves Jaebum unkindly into the back seat of their car.

"Yeah" Mark takes the keys from Jackson and helps him into the car. He's limping a little, like he might have twisted something.